Armstrong could not look son in the eye
LANCE ARMSTRONG said he finally cracked after he saw his son defending him against allegations from anti-doping authorities.
Those officials and disillusioned cycling fans might have wanted a different explanation – perhaps while expressing deep remorse or regrets, though there was plenty of that in yesterday’s second part of Armstrong’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The seven-time Tour de France champion didn’t break over the US$75 million ($89m) in lost sponsorship deals, or after being forced to walk away from the cancer charity he founded.
It was another bit of collateral damage that Armstrong said he wasn’t prepared to deal with.
‘‘I saw my son defending me and saying, ‘ That’s not true. What you’re saying about my dad is not true’,’’ Armstrong recalled. ‘‘That’s when I knew I had to tell him.’’
Armstrong was near tears at that point, referring to 13- year- old Luke, the oldest of his five children. It came just past the midpoint of an hour-long broadcast, a day after he admitted using performance-enhancing drugs.
Critics said he hadn’t been contrite enough in the first half of the interview, recorded on Tuesday, but Armstrong seemed to lose his composure when Winfrey asked him what he told his son.
‘‘I said, ‘Listen, there’s been a lot of questions about your dad. My career. Whether I doped or did not dope. I’ve always denied that and I’ve always been ruthless and defiant about that. You guys have seen that. That’s probably why you trusted me on it.’ Which makes it even sicker,’’ Armstrong said.
‘‘And uh, I told Luke, I said,’’ and here Armstrong paused, ‘‘I said, ‘ Don’t defend me any more. Don’t.’ ’’